{Doctors have said they will continue with their strike until their demands are met.}<\/p>\n
Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union Secretary-General Ouma Oluga said on a radio talk show Tuesday that Kenyans are entitled to quality and adequately paid doctors.<\/p>\n
He made the remarks on the second day of the medics’ countrywide strike.<\/p>\n
The doctors are pushing for promotions, better pay and a review of job groups under a collective bargaining agreement signed in 2013.<\/p>\n
The strike has paralysed health services in public hospitals across the country.<\/p>\n
By Monday evening, at least seven patients had died while thousands were discharged prematurely.<\/p>\n
Patients seeking treatment at public hospitals have been forced to turn to private hospitals for services.<\/p>\n
In the North Rift region, private hospitals had to recall staff who were on leave to cope with the increase in the number of patients seeking help.<\/p>\n
Wards at Kerugoya Referral Hospital in Kirinyaga County were deserted after relatives transferred patients to private health facilities.<\/p>\n
Patients were turned away Tuesday morning as there were no health workers at the hospital.<\/p>\n
“We had to go back home after being informed that clinical officers have also downed their tools,” said Njeri Kariuki, a patient.<\/p>\n
The casualty and emergency department of Kilifi County Referral Hospital remained closed for the second day running.<\/p>\n
Several people who had taken family members to the hospital for treatment had to turn to private hospitals instead.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have come with my grandfather from Matsangoni but the emergency [department] is closed. One nurse we found in the premises said medics were on strike. I am taking him to a private hospital.<\/p>\n
“This is the only health facility that we mainly depend on. I want this strike to end because we don\u2019t have money to seek medical services in private hospitals,\u201d said Zawadi Kenga.<\/p>\n
In one ward, relatives were attending to their loved ones as a nurse kept an eye on them. However, security guards chased away reporters who were trying to access the area.<\/p>\n
At one point, members of the news media were barred by the security guards from entering the hospital, with the guards saying they were acting on orders from management.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{Doctors have said they will continue with their strike until their demands are met.} Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists’ Union Secretary-General Ouma Oluga said on a radio talk show Tuesday that Kenyans are entitled to quality and adequately paid doctors. He made the remarks on the second day of the medics’ countrywide strike. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[99],"byline":[2461],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-30850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-greatlakesnews","byline-daily-nation"],"bylines":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2461,"name":"Daily Nation","slug":"daily-nation","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30850"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=30850"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=30850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}